Communication systems are well known and consist of many types including land mobile radio, cellular radiotelephone, personal communication systems, and other communication system types. Within a communication system, transmissions are conducted between a transmitting device and a receiving device over a communication resource, commonly referred to as a communication channel. To date, the transmissions have typically consisted of voice signals. More recently, however, it has been proposed to carry other forms of signals, including high-speed data signals. For ease of operation, it is preferable to have the data transmission capability overlay the existing voice communication capability, such that its operation is essentially transparent to the voice communication system while still utilizing the communication resources and other infrastructure of the voice communication system.
One such communication system currently being developed with transparent data transmission capabilities is the next generation Code-Division Multiple-Access (CDMA) cellular communication system, more commonly referred to as Wideband cdma, or cdma2000. Remote unit data transmission within a Wideband communication system takes place by assigning the remote unit a high-speed data channel (referred to as a supplemental channel (SCH)) and transmitting data utilizing the supplemental channel. More specifically, when data transmission is requested, a remote unit is immediately assigned a dedicated control channel (DCCH), and is power controlled to the correct transmit power utilizing only the DCCH. Once available, data transmission occurs utilizing the supplemental channel at a power level similar to that utilized for the DCCH. Likewise it is possible to have a separate voice channel called a fundamental channel (FCH) such that all three channels must be power controlled.
During soft handoff in next generation systems the DCCH, fundamental channel, and supplemental channel can have a differing number of base station links, different data rates, and different quality of services (QoSs). Because the feedback information (typically sent every 1.25 ms) used in power control of both the DCCH and supplemental channel is based on a metric comprising a number of soft-handoff links, QoS, and data rate for the DCCH, it is possible that the supplemental channel may operate at an unacceptable power level and QoS. More specifically, it is anticipated that (1) the number of DCCH soft-handoff links will always be greater than the number of supplemental channel soft-handoff links, (2) the supplemental channel data rate will always be higher than the DCCH or fundamental channel baud rate, and (3) the supplemental channel QoS will be substantially different with respect to the DCCH and fundamental channel. Because of this, a supplemental channel, operating at a similar power level as the DCCH, will not be power controlled in a manner to achieve the necessary QoS. Therefore, a need exists for power control within a broad-band communication system that adequately power controls a high-speed data channel.